Saturday, September 19, 2009

About one week ago, regular reader, if not regular commenter Larry, linked to what I think is an amazing essay by the Iranian-born American author Amil Imani, who writes for an outfit called the International Analyst Network. Mr. Imani has an own website. When you check it out, you will notice a variant of the symbol I include here to the right. It's called a Faravahar, but more about that later. Anyway, on September 12, he posted the article below on the IAN site. I think it's extremely to the point, since we cannot read a newspaper, watch TV or check online journals these days without at once noticing reports of muslims blowing up people from Somalia to Xinjiang, islamic terrorist plots foiled from the Rockies over Queens to the UK, "youths" attacking the police ALL OVER EUROPE, and sharia on the rise in virtually every muslim country. I do not know how it is with you, but to me it seems that the entire islamic world is showing the same behaviour as a rabid dog. This seems to be Mr. Imani's observation too, and his essay is worth pondering:

ISLAM IS FIRE. - by Amil Imani

September 12, 2009.

The Islamic fire, fueled by immense oil income, is raging in certain regions of the world, smoldering in others, and is ready to ignite in yet other parts of the world. It is imperative for the free people of the world to abandon all illusions about Islam and put out its fire, once and for all. Multiculturalism, live and-let live, is a delusion of kind-hearted naïve people. Islam, as fractured as it is, is a non-compromising mono-culture; a cruel culture of a primitive people handed down by Muhammad some 1400 years ago.

It is true that most religions are intended to attenuate human fears. They are based on natural fears, many of which are irrational...but natural nonetheless. For example, many pagan religious practices were focused on the seasonal cycles related to the harvest. Why? Because if the harvest was poor, their entire civilization could perish, or be weakened to the point where a neighboring tribe would kill them off. While they misunderstood the scientific basis for weather, they created natural (yet irrational) religious beliefs about weather and harvest. In this sense, religions were psychologically useful and inevitable in addressing natural conditions.

But some religions establish for themselves fears of things which do not exist...which the religion itself invented in order to create and perpetuate fear, and then artificially addressed it in order to establish a political regime. The political nature of Islam transcends personal spiritualism and becomes a cult of oppression. This is fraud. This is evil. This is Islam.

Islam essentially invents the idea that Christians, Jews, and pagans are abominations and offensive to Allah, and that their very existence represents an attack upon the self-defined Islamic right to reign over the world. Allah thus enlists Muslim believers to eradicate by force those who offend him and by disbelieving, prevent his rule. True Muslim believers therefore become the enforcers, hit men and mercenaries for their god, in order to establish a global Caliphate for their parasitic clergy. Their targets are artificially constructed adversaries. Believers are instructed to fear the “great Satan.” and are told that if they do not live up to Allah’s calls to Jihad, they are themselves offensive to Allah and to their families. It’s a “you’re either for me or against me” strategy.

Contrast this with say, Christian fears. Christians too fear offending God, because they believe that God will judge their lives when their bodies die. So their fears are reduced by atoning in personal alignment with the teachings of the Bible.

So, as a political religion, Islam creates artificial fear of alien groups, and then eliminates the fear through war and coercion. Islam pleases Allah with brutality and Jihad. Islam seeks to instill a political regime to enforce its provisions. When such a political doctrine declares that “resistance is futile”, it is referring to corporeal enforcement by people.

Personal religions acknowledge natural fears, and then use light, wisdom, and the capacity for human nobility to eliminate them through a positive, spiritual exercise. Other religions encourage voluntary, personal spiritual alignment. The only “coercion” in a religion based on personal spiritualism is the conveyance of the natural idea of a soul and judgment. If you believe in these things, you change and atone, perhaps out of fear. If you do not, you accuse the evangelizer of being fraudulent...but a fraud is a demonstrable deception not an opinion, and the one who disbelieves in a personal religion cannot prove his point of view, so fraud is not in play as a driver of personal spiritualism. When a personal religion declares that “resistance is futile”, it is referring to spiritual enforcement by God.

This is the difference between day and night, between good and evil. Islam believes in the rule of Islam, Caliphate to the Sunnis and Imamate to the Shi’as. Hence, to Muslims, all other forms of government represent the handiwork of the Satan and the infidels. Therefore, one and all non-Islamic systems of government must be purified by the Islamic fire.

Islam is and has always been political, in the form of Imamate, Caliphate or by proxy where Islam, through religious divines, controlled the state. Saudi Arabia, for instance, does not even have a constitution. The Quran is the constitution. The country has a king. Yet, the king is the supreme enforcer of the laws dictated by Islam.

Islam is so radical that even the term “radical” does not adequately depict its true character. The founder of Islam, Muhammad, behaved in extreme ways whenever he could. Early on, in Mecca, among his tribe of Quraish, he was ridiculed as a crazed Poet. Ordinary residents of Mecca scorned him in their habitual way of treating the mentally deranged. What did Muhammad do? He personified meekness itself. He put up with extreme indignities, did not fight back and suffered abuses.

Time was on Muhammad’s side. Before long, he attracted followers, some of whom were men of power and influence, such as Umar, Uthman and Abu Bakr. Then the pendulum swung. The long-suffering meek became the tyrannical avenger. He ordered all the idols in the idolatry of Mecca destroyed, except the one called Allah. Yet, he selected the same name for a non-corporeal deity who commissioned him as his messenger. Then Allah’s messenger, Muhammad, set out to systematically exterminate people he perceived as his tormentors and enemies—Jews of Medina, among others.

The Quran is full of black and white, right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable verses. Men who didn’t convert to Islam were labeled infidels and slaughtered; their women and children were taken along with all their belongings as booty. It was either Islam’s way or the highway. This radicalism is very much in action today.

In another Islamic country, Iran, where the mullahs rule, the constitution is squarely based on the Quran. Many laws are strictly drawn from the Sharia. The mosque is the state and no other competing political ideology is permitted. But marrying religion with government is stoking fire with explosives. In free democracies, governments are accountable to the people and serve at the people’s pleasure. In Islamic theocracy, governments are accountable only to Allah and the people must serve at the pleasure of the government. And one can see the result of Islamic total or partial rule in fifty-four or so countries which rank among the highest nations of the world on every index of misery.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Iran threw off its oppressive theocratic rule and established a government “of the people”, with room for all beliefs? Iran could be a powerful nation and a peaceful one, an example for the rest of the developing world of how to thrive without Islamic politics. However, the road to freedom is perilous. Nothing as worthwhile as freedom can be purchased easily. But the cause is worth it.

While I desire freedom in Iran, I am a committed anti-Islamist and anti-communist in general. I believe communism as an expression of materialist naturalist philosophy is atheistic, representing a desire by man to dominate both nature and man. To me, it is Satan’s “denial” play...that there is no God. But Satan and his minions work in multiple theaters simultaneously. Islam is Satan’s chief “deception” play. Rather than deny God exists, it asserts that God does in fact exist, but that God does not desire men worship out of love or free will, but through rote, fear, and guilt, and through the sins of pride, envy, and chauvinism.

It is a mentality of enslavement that drives Islam...“submission” in which man subdues other men in order to establish a kingdom of oppression and hatred on earth. Atheism, materialism and Islam appear as contradictions with respect to each other, but when you peel away the veneer of their pretense, you see that their aims are the same. Fascism is fascism.

We live in a society which worships “experts” and specialists. However, our distorted society of “experts” has continually failed us. Almost nothing they have told us has turned out to be true. Thus, I am a revisionist in that I believe much of what we believe is true is utterly false. I also believe in good and evil, a notion sadly obsolete in our nihilistic time. I don’t think Satan is any more a metaphor than is God.

Islam is theocracy, the rule of the clerics. The authoritarianism runs from the top to the bottom in a strict hierarchy with Allah at the top, to his Prophet, to the Caliphs or the Imams, to the lesser men of cloth along the chain of command. No one is allowed to contest or dispute the word and actions of the authorities. Islam and democracy, therefore, are inherently irreconcilable. In some Islamic circles Muslims speak of Islamic Democracy—an oxymoron.

Jihadists are the army of Allah. The use of violence as an instrument of policy has been and continues to be central to Islam. Muslims war under the firmly-believed and widely-cherished set of ideas that are rabidly militaristic. No matter which side is killed, Islam is the victor, “You kill them, you go to paradise; you get killed, you go to paradise,” are two examples of exhortation to jihadism and war.

To cut to the chase, we need to eliminate some disinformation and myths about the “war on terror”:

1. We are not fighting terrorism. We are engaging in an ideological battle between freedom, conservatism, democracy, individual rights, capitalism, “Christian” ethics and Islamofascism, communism-socialism, theocracy, and tyranny. There are also internationalist, dictatorial, globalist forces that seek to use the conflict to create an international government and a unification of all religions by the destruction of nationalism, patriotism, individual rights and sectarianism.2. It is not “fanatical”, “radical”, or “extreme” Islam that we are fighting, but normal, orthodox, canonical, typical, accepted, traditional Islam, straight from the mouth of the Muhammad. Islam is violent in direct proportion to its mission and scripture. The so-called fanatics are only upholding the truth of their principles. There are those who do not openly engage in terrorism or warfare, but are in support of it, or are working in other ways to spread Islam by force or fraud.3. Islam is evil, by any accepted definition of that word, and must be seen as such by all rational non-Islamists. There is no such thing as “peace” in Islam except the peace that comes after a successful war against infidels.4. Islam can work by brute force and by the lengths to which the believers will go to perpetuate it. Its theology and practices make it inherently evil and dangerous to all of mankind. It has already spread and infected the world like a cancer. How do you nuke it out of existence? You can’t...in fact, they will nuke us first, and I guarantee it. When this happens, all hell will break loose, and most freedoms will be up in smoke. Ask yourself how the Palestinian problem can ever get resolved. There are only two ways: either they are gone from the land of Israel or converted from Islam. Otherwise, the war will never end. The Israeli-Palestinian war is not about the land, it never has been. It is about the eradication of the Jews; right to the last one of them because Muhammad had prescribed it and is eternal.

We must begin to declare Islam evil, not from a sectarian perspective, but from a universal, humanist one. Every encroachment of Islam as a religion must be rejected, harassed and discouraged by all people everywhere. Any leftist attempts to give aid and comfort to this religion of hate must be denounced and frustrated at every turn. Otherwise, get used to your radioactive suit and your fallout shelter, a standard of living—and a level of freedom of 1/10th what of you have today.

Warning to free men and women: remain a spectator at your own peril. It is imperative that you take a stand and do your part at denouncing the fraud of Islam and do all you can to prevent the Islamic fire from devouring our civilized democratic system."

For me personally, this is the most powerful essay I have read this year so far. I... think I agree with it, yet I would counsel that the West continues to try to implement some form of democracy in muslim countries, hoping that if we manage to get them to settle their conflicts without them caving each other's heads in, their economies may get better, their standard of living will enhance, and young muslims may be less inclined to blow themselves up because the mad mullahs demand it.

This may of course very well be a stretch, but it is actually the only alternative to a full blown war between islam and the rest of the world, a conflict that has the potential to dwarf the casualties suffered in both world wars. Many rational people may sense the intrinsic value of Mr. Imani's conclusions, but where is the world leader who would have the guts to say out loud what is written above and demand that the ummah come clear with its intentions?

The symbol I included above, like I said a Faravahar, is one of the best known, if not the best known Zoroastrian symbols. It depicts the ancient Zoroastrian "God" Ahura Mazda. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to find it on Mr. Imani's site, for it shows that this man valours his ancient Persian belief system Zoroastrianism. It seems that today, this religion is all but forgotten, having worldwide possibly some 200,000 followers left. But its importance cannot be underestimated, since it is actually the first monotheistic religion in recorded history... and some say it is actually a forerunner of the abrahamaic religions, alas including islam. Indeed, it introduced the concepts of an All-Powerful Force of the good, said Ahura Mazda, the "uncreated Creator", saints (the Yazatas), the eternal conflict between good (asha) and bad (druj), a holy book (the Avesta), the prospect of a reward in the afterlife after having lived as a decent person and a punishment in case of the opposite, a Satan figure (Angra Mainyu), the ultimate battle between good and evil in which good will prevail, and even a messiah figure (the Saoshyant).

Being a christian myself and fairly comfortable with it, I can testify that my faith has, throughout my life, been an essential guidance tool not only in moral questions, but actually in virtually every other aspect of my life. Whenever in need or in a dire situation - and there have been quite a lot - prayer and introspection, preferably in a church but also wherever the occasion presented itself, have served to calm nerves, take heart and face the challenge du jour. My knowledge of the Bible, while not scanty, enables me by no means to come up with the right verse for the right situation and identify it too - but like many a Christian I have found out that in its essence, everything can be led back to the Ten Commandments. And like many Christians have found out too, Christianity teaches you to realize your own fallibility (of which I am painfully aware myself) and to regard the awesome Creation with fitting humility, something atheists will need cosmology for before reaching the same conclusion (of course, Christianity and cosmology need not exclude each other, quite the contrary).

Be all that as it may, I don't feel the need to go around proselytizing. People are free to choose for themselves the belief system that best fits them and makes them comfortable in coping with the eventual memento mori reality. Of course, our children are brought up in the Christian belief because of my conviction that what was good for me, will be good for them. But at some point, when we let them free, they will have to decide for themselves.

That having been said, I cannot feel but the truest sympathy for people like Mr. Imani, who seem to have found the same comfort with their ancient and worthy Zoroastrian belief as I have with Christianity. Like Christianity, Zoroastrianism is a belief system that instills in its adherents a love for the good and justice. There is actually little doubt in my mind that the high quality of Iranian culture can be attributed to Zoroastrianist influences, something that transpires in Iranian society to this day, despite the fact that islam, like everywhere else where it appeared, destroyed the ancient Persian culture and led to the forced conversion of Persians. This may be a stretch, but I would even wager that the undeniably greater technological prowess of Iranians vis-à-vis their arab counterparts can be attributed at least partly to the Zoroastrianist mindset, active in Iranian society to this day.

First, Nirvana with "In Bloom". We write 1992. It is the fourth and final single to be drawn from Nevermind.

Only recently did I learn that the song was produced by the somewhat legendary Butch Vig, who in the same time frame as In Bloom's release started with his own band, Garbage. Vig cut away parts of the original "In Bloom". His influence can also be heard in the way the guitars are layered. I do not know to what extent he had a hand in the video itself, which I always found pretty hilarious. The parodying of the sixties' decent boys outfits get me into a fold to this day, and Krist Novoselic' body language, Dave Grohl's wig and Kurt Cobain's facial expressions and glasses betray absolute genius.

The following track is called "The living sculptures of Pemberley" from the soundtrack of the movie "Pride and Prejudice" (2005), based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Composed by Dario Marianelli, it was performed by French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the English Chamber Orchestra. It is quite beautiful; if you are a romantic, sensitive, caring and somewhat sentimental individual like Miserable Fat Belgian Bastard, which is the other half of my schizophrenic personality, you will like it as well as the philm. Also, Jane Bennett, the blonde, Lizzie's sister, is quite hot. Hint: every motherf$cking immigrant who wants to become a decent citizen of the U of K should at least know who Jane Austen was, and preferably read at least one of her books.

That's all for today folks. The War On Islamic Terror re-begins at 1am Monday morning tops. Praise the Lord, damn the torpedoes, and pass the ammunition.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Heavy riots the last few days in some five Brussels muslim-dominated neighborhoods. Even heavier unrest is expected this weekend since it is the end of ramadan. The situation is so tense that the Vlaams Belang issued a statement that if police is unable to quell the unrest, the Army has to be deployed. The Het Laatste Nieuws caption below reads: "Vlaams Belang wants to temporarily deploy Army in Molenbeek." It is the ONLY reaction thus far from the political front, given the eardeafening silence from the other parties at the umpteenth evidence of the complete and utter failure of their dada, the lovely multicultural society; but at least it is also a very sane reaction.

The following video does not show that much of the rioting, since shot between attacks on a police precinct and because the muslim crowd is not visible in the darkened streets on either side of the crossroads. But the heavy police presence and the water cannon in anticipation of the assault are telling. More fleshing out soon.

Some background on one of the riots from De Standaard, 17 September 2009:

"Police got involved in a fight with Molenbeek youth after the arrest of a fourteen-year old boy. The boy had been challenging and offending the police for several days already. When officers came to arrest him at home at around 7pm in the Vanderstichelenstraat, things went wrong. Several family members vehemently protested and this led quickly to a gathering of a twenty-strong group around the police officers. When the crowd started throwing stones, the officers withdrew with the young suspect to the precinct in the Brievendragerstraat.

After a short while the boy's family appeared, this time accompanied by a group of around sixty. A riot ensued and a number of youths started to pelt the precinct with stones. In the turmoil, family members of the young criminal had to flee and two officers of Brussels Zone West got hurt. One of them was wounded at the leg, the other one received an uppercut.

Brussels West Police received reinforcements from other zones and of two water cannons and a Federal Police helicopter. This eased the situation in the streets around the precinct a bit, but a short while later tensions flared up again in Ribeaucourt Street and Leopold II Avenue. There, groups of youths ten and fifteen strong began to challenge the police and run amok. One patrol which had been summoned from Brussels Capital/Elsene for reinforcement was pelted with projectiles, which wounded four officers..."

Below is the testimony of two police officers who complain bitterly that they feel left alone by the mayor. One of them literally says that the mayor (meant is almost certainly Philippe Moureaux of the Parti Socialiste, but the mayors of the other muslim hotbeds are also socialists) has chosen the side of his electorate.

Small wonder of course, since the process of 'soft ethnic cleansing' that takes place EVERYWHERE where the percentage of muslims at some point exceeds a critical level, leads to a percentage of, IIRC, 78% muslims in the commune of Molenbeek.

I pity the few remaining indigenous Belgians in these quarters. Almost certainly the largest part of them are elderly people wit not enough money to buy or build a house elsewhere, and who know DAMN WELL that if they sell their current house, they will get a very bad price for it.

The result is that if they DO sell it... it goes to a muslim family. And so it goes on and on and on...

... until entire neighborhoods and suburbs are almost exclusively muslim.

After which the police is denied entry. Brussels, the Capital of Europe... as a whole, already 25% muslim.

The Belgian Army still has on hand a couple of hundred of these babies, Leopard 1A5 MBTs. Personally, I'd love to see them in Molenbeek's streets to show the scum who's boss.

In the best Belgian tradition however, the more likely outcome will be that the cancer has to rot its way thru far more of our country before we will see such reaction. The Flemish Greens have just issued their remedy: more police officers of Moroccan descent. Yeah right.

MFBB.

UPDATE:

Last night, heavy riots again. 43 "youths" arrested. Since it seems the end of ramadan is near (Eid al Fitr on Sunday) the climax is yet to be expected. Isn't it curious that it's getting a tradition that every year the Police is on higher alert during the so-called muslim period of peace?

RTL video below. Check out the fella giving passing police officers the finger(s). No reply from the cops. Why would they? If they arrest the guy, in no time they're faced with a 50-strong crowd popping up from nowhere. Besides, a judge would order him released within seconds.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

"Imam Nordine Taouil is an extremist muslim." This bold statement comes from Alain Winants, Administrator-General of Belgian State Security, yesterday in the Terzake TV Show on Canvas.

Salafist-Wahabbist.

"On the basis of info we gathered regarding Mr. Nordine Taouil, we have judged it necessary to reveal that the subject has to be considered someone who is actually an extremist muslim of salafist-wahabbist creed and who is an active militant in salafist circles" says Winants. Taouil would also organize strict muslim education for young Belgian muslims in radical quran schools in Palistan.

Without compromise"Salafism is an islamic creed without compromise. It is actually a movement that wants to return to the original islam and rejects all western influence [on islam]", says Winants.

Let's recap a little. This summer, the board of directors of an Antwerp High School, the Koninklijk Atheneum, decided to ban, at the beginning of the new school year in September, all headscarves upon entry of the students. The reason, according to Head Principal Karin Heremans, ironically herself an ardent "progressive", was that the ever mounting social pressure of headscarf-wearing students on the others had reached an alarming level, and further radicalization needed to be halted. Below you see a demo of the dimwits on the school court. It should be noted that anno 2009 the Koninklijk Atheneum is around 80% muslim, since the attitudes of the muslim schoolchildren basically constitute a "soft ethnic cleansing" vis-a-vis autochton, non-muslim Flemish children. The photo gives a clear view of what happens after this process has been going on for a couple of years. In 2001, muslim children still constituted a minority in the Koninklijk Atheneum.

Anyway, no sooner had the message to ban the scarves on the school's premises received attention in national media, or Imam Taouil, chairman of the Belgian Muslim Council, profiled himself as the spokesman of the Koninklijk Atheneum's students, going so far as to threaten that all girls would stay at home (which is illegal, given compulsory school attendance until 18) and even mass insubordination of muslim students across Flanders.

Coincidence or no coincidence, at the beginning of the school year the Vlaams Belang chapter in Antwerp, led by Filip Dewinter, issued an ominous report on the radicalization of Antwerps mosques. The report, drafted wby a.o. ex-muslims, is available on Dewinters personal website. The report contains the following appalling info on the El Mouslimin mosque and its former imam.... Nordin Taouil:

Sorry, but I lack the time to translate even this little exerpt. Basically it says that the El Mouslimin mosque is a shelter place for the Groupe Islamiqe Combattant Marocain, a terrorist organization, and that Taouil himself is a proponent of armed struggle against the West. As a result of his hate speeches, 90% of the youths attending the mosque say they are willing to give their life in combat [against the West]. Taouil would also be the middleman for organizing "physical" training in foreign mosques.

... but as we can see for ourselves, Belgian State Security has now implicitly acknowledged the correctness of the VB's report. This must be a first.

This affair is not the first time that Taouil has placed himself in the spotlights. Three and a half years ago, at the height of the Danish cartoon "crisis", he organized a massive "peaceful" sit in of muslims on one of Antwerps most famous squares, the Groenplaats. This was, IIRC, on February 12, 2006. On the photo below, you see him in action:

Here's another pic. It pains my heart that the Mecca photo on that idiot's board is blotting out our magnificent gothic Cathedral of Our Lady.

After the peaceful protest the peaceful protestors took to Antwerps streets to let it be known that if a Dane draws a cartoon of Muhammad in a town somewhere in Jutland 900 kloms away, the dwindling indigenous Flemings of soon-to-be Antwerpistan have to pay. This of course in a peaceful way. For instance by having their rearview mirrors ripped off or having their car hoods indented by a small crowd stampeding over it:

Here is a still from that wonderfully enriching multiculti event. Just remember, it took place in early 2006 and things have not, well, actually today there are a couple of tens of thousands more muslim peaceniks in Antwerp.

And what was Imam Taouils reaction?

Well, of course he regretted the damage verrrrrrry much. But we should understand the justified grievances of muslims at the appalling crime of depicting their perfect example.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

It took me a long time to take this decision. And even now, since I still consider myself merely a guestwriter - ever since Kerry D. invited me back in the fall of 2003 to contribute a post now and then - ha! - even now, I will still reinstate the link if the original founders of this blog: Kerry, Tom and Scott, ask me to do so.

If they don't... well, then I think linking to Little Green Footballs from DowneastBlog is history. There was a time when Charles Johnson's brainchild was THE beacon of the Internet Counterjihad, and we rightwing bloggers all looked up to him. Those were the days when Mark Steyn heaped praise on LGF for online providing a "fascinating" array of bigger and lesser facts demonstrating the evil nature of the worldwide jihad and the less obvious, but actually greater dangers of dhimmitude in the face of "moderate" islam.

Those days are long gone. To me, it all started with Johnson's outburst against, to my huge surprise, my own party, the Vlaams Belang, a small party, tiny really on the international political scene, that suddenly found itself in the crosshairs of Johnson's other counterjihad, the one against "Fascism" and "Racism". He did this since the VB had profiled itself as an important contributor in the fight against Europes islamization, and at one point even sent delegates to likeminded conservative organizations in the States, notably in Washington.

I have explained here a gazillion times that the VB's origins were murky, and many times I have made it clear that I wouldn't have joined them back in the streetfighting days. But the thing is, when I joined the VB in 2004 - after a Belgian leftist government insanely granted voting rights in municipal elections to immigrants who did not even WANT to become Belgian citizens - the party had come clear with its past - it was clean. Or at least clean enough for me. Those who know me know that I set the standard high. The VB IS clean. That is to say, one cannot exclude the possibility that deep in the bowels of the party there are still some malign spirits lingering. Fine. If that is ground enough to demonize a representative, democratic party, then demonize ALL parties in the world. But by and large, in its outward appearance, in its inner workings, in the publications it produces, in the behaviour and working methods of its members, in its parliamentary work... there is absolutely nothing that should earn the VB hateful monikers as "nazis", "fascists", "racists" or these other epithets which always come in handy when leftists lose a rational argument.

But Johnson's hatred for the VB was not the only reason for my decision. We have all witnessed, over the past few years, how the former exposer of islamic jihadism shifted more and more to the left. To be sure, pre 9/11 Johnson WAS a leftist. But post factum he curiously understood for some time what was at stake and who was the real enemy. That period lasted from, say, fall 2001 to fall 2005. From then on Johnson gradually seemed to discern a far greater danger than islamic extremism in creationism, Intelligent Design, Europes so-called "extreme rightwing" parties, Rush Limbaugh, and each and everyone still, and primarily, focusing on the dangers emanating from the entire muslim world. In the process, he alienated one fellow blogger after another: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, Richard Miniter.... while in the same breath denouncing sites of which he should have been a steadfast ally: The Brussels Journal, Gates of Vienna, Diana West etc.

Anno 2009 Johnson seems to have totally lost it, or rather, he has almost completely "moved to the dark side". His sympathy for the current Administration is obvious, the few references he still makes to the dangers of militant islam are largely symbolic, and his willful dismissal of the catastrophic impact of Europes islamization on our western heritage, including foremost our democratic rights and values for which millions have died, hints at either dangerous ignorance or else darker motives.

To cut a long story short: I'm done with Charles Johnson. We have drifted too far apart. There is no common ground anymore, and I no longer see a reason to link to him, at least not in the high profile way it was done here, with a separate mention and linking tool instead of merely a place in the blogroll.

It has long been utterly annoying and degrading to me to hear Johnson depict my party and by extension me as fascists. You will forgive me then a little gloating when I find myself able to say a final goodbye by means of a fitting farewell movie which I found over at Tundra Tabloids:

"From the beginning, our representatives in Washington have approached this economic downturn with old-fashioned, Keynesian economics. Keynesianism—named after the British economist John Maynard Keynes—is the theory that you fight an economic downturn by pumping money into the economy to "encourage demand" and "create jobs." The result of our recent Keynesian stimulus bills? The longest recession since World War II—21 months and counting—with no clear end in sight. Borrowing close to a trillion dollars out of the private economy to increase government spending by close to a trillion dollars does nothing to increase incentives for investment and entrepreneurship.

The record speaks for itself: In February 2008, President George W. Bush cut a deal with congressional Democrats to pass a $152 billion Keynesian stimulus bill based on countering the recession with increased deficits. The centerpiece was a tax rebate of up to $600 per person, which had no significant effect on economic incentives, as reductions in tax rates do.

Learning nothing from this Keynesian failure, which he vigorously supported from the U.S. Senate, President Barack Obama came back in February 2009 to support a $787 billion, purely Keynesian stimulus bill.

Even the tax-cut portion of that bill, which Mr. Obama is still wildly touting to the public, was purely Keynesian. The centerpiece was a $400-per-worker tax credit, which, again, has no significant effect on economic incentives. While Mr. Obama is proclaiming that this delivered on his campaign promise to cut taxes for 95% of Americans, the tax credit disappears after next year.

The Obama administration is claiming success, not because of recovery, but because of the slowdown in economic decline. Last month, just 216,000 jobs were lost, and the economy declined by only 1% in the second quarter. Based on his rhetoric, Mr. Obama expects credit for anyone who still has a job.

The fallacies of Keynesian economics were exposed decades ago by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Keynesian thinking was then discredited in practice in the 1970s, when the Keynesians could neither explain nor cure the double-digit inflation, interest rates, and unemployment that resulted from their policies. Ronald Reagan's decision to dump Keynesianism in favor of supply-side policies—which emphasize incentives for investment—produced a 25-year economic boom. That boom ended as the Bush administration abandoned every component of Reaganomics one by one, culminating in Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's throwback Keynesian stimulus in early 2008..."

I'm not gonna rip off Baron Keynes completely. Back in the day he published The Means to Prosperity (1933) and especially his magnum opus the General Theory on Employment, Interest and Money (1936), two works which inspired the Roosevelt Administration to continue on the interventionist path already chosen under President Hoover, the flaws of his theories had yet to manifest themselves. After all, there had been no precedent.

The current administration does not have that excuse. There IS a precedent. The New Deal's total failure, an outcome which, handily for leftitst, was effectively overshadowed by Roosevelts steadfast, courageous and successful leadership during World War II.

Over at DowneastBlog, we've always been true acolytes of Von Mises, Hayek and Friedman. And it is in their theories that lies salvation for the West's economic woes.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Being a European, and preocuupied with rather pressing issues in our neck of the wood, it apparently took me some time to grasp the ever increasing importance of the so-called tea parties across the USA. But I was shocked wide awake - and I suppose quite a few other Europeans too, insofar their media were honest enough to report about it - by the massive rally held in Washington DC on Saturday September 12. Regulare reader and commenter Adriane provided this link to Protein Wisdom, who have good coverage. The photo below is from their site:

I did not know there were so many nazis, uh, fiscally responsible people in the US of A.

But the demo in Washington DC apparently wasn't the only one. The following pic is from a 2,500-3,000 strong demo in Los Angeles, no less:

From AmericanpowerBlog. Anon will not believe me when I say I wish it wasn't true what's on that guy's sign. But it is. I wish it wasn't true. And while this time I won't go as far as to say bluntly that what's on it IS true, I fear that nevertheless, it isn't too far off the mark.

Then I came across this video:

If I were a crybaby, I'd say that it brought a tear to my eye. Hey, wait a minute (takes handkerchief).

No, serious. This huge demonstration came as a pleasant surprise to me. Watching this all from across the Atlantic, I may be wrong about my impression that this massive movement across the US is not borne by big names, at least not per se. But so far I do indeed not see any well-known GOP Senator or rightwing pundit profiling him- or herself as the leader of these demos. Which means I have to conclude it is truly a grassroots movement. And that is giving me hope. Over here in Europe, our corrupt, short-sighted, spineless slimeball cowards of politicans enact measures against the will of the population. A majority against gay marriage? Just push it thru. A majority against more immigration? Set the floodgates even more open (just happened in my country). Some country's EU referendum not in line with a Brussels or Strasbourg Diktat? No problem, we'll just hold another referendum until they vote correctly. Overwhelming majority against inclusion of Turkey in the European Union? Talks are proceeding as if this majority lived on Pluto. And... why wouldn't it be that way? Because no matter how contrary to the will and aspirations of the population the deeds of our "elite" fuckwad politicians are... said population just swallows it in the end. No such thing like tea parties over here, although there's plenty of reasons for them.

BUT... at least in the United States... the citizenry hasn't been reduced yet to scared will-less, spineless, voting cattle, not believing in anything anymore but their holidays and pensions.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.